The Soul of Golf

[Dark Saint Alaick]

There will always be found many people who are prepared to condemn
utterly anything which they do not understand. Some of these are sure
to exercise themselves on this subject, so I shall give them some
additional food for thought. Some time ago, a golfer who was capable
of removing Mr. John Ball from the Amateur Championship Competition,
lost his left thumb at the second joint. After his misfortune he took
to driving a much longer ball than he had been in the habit of doing
before his accident.

Now there must have been some reason for this. The only one which I
can suggest is that his accident put the right hand more into its
proper and natural place on the shaft than it had been before.
Curiosity led me to try to reproduce this grip as much as possible. I
used the ordinary overlapping grip, with the exception that I allowed
my thumb to remain out and to rest on the back of my right hand in a
line with the knuckle of the little finger. I was astonished to find
how closely it seemed to bring the wrists together. The injured golfer
would probably have the ideal golf grip if he overlapped his right
with his left forefinger instead of using the ordinary overlap, for he
would have a perfectly free and full right-hand grip, no interference
by the thumb of the left hand, and a natural overlap with the left
forefinger on the little finger of the right hand.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

There is surely food for thought in these considerations, and I am
sure that many who take to golf late in life could do much better with
this grip and the short swing than they do with the grip which is most
in vogue, and with much striving after an exaggerated swing. It is not
wise for us to think that there is nothing to discover or to improve
on in the grip. There is in this suggestion much room for experiment
and argument, and unless I am very much mistaken we shall, in the
future, see the relative position of the hands on the shaft altered.

I may here refer again to the remarks made on the power of the left by
Mr. Horace Hutchinson. It will be remembered that he said:

Since, as will be shown later on, the club has to turn in the
right hand at a certain point in the swing, it should be held
lightly in the fingers, rather than in the palm, with that
hand. In the left hand it should be held well home in the
palm, and it is not to stir from this position throughout the
swing. It is the left hand, mainly, that communicates the
power of the swing; the chief function of the right hand is
as a guide in direction.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Notwithstanding Mr. Horace Hutchinson's statement with regard to the
function of the right hand, there is given on page 86 of the Badminton
_Golf_ an illustration entitled "At the top of the swing (as it should
be)." Here we see a player in about as ineffective a position for
producing a drive as one could possibly imagine, for the right elbow
is considerably above the player's head and is pointing skyward. It
would be an impossibility from such a position to obtain either
adequate guidance or power from the right hand, and it is a matter of
astonishment to find the name of such a fine player and good judge of
the game as Mr. Horace Hutchinson attached to an illustration which
must always be a classical illustration of "The top of the swing (as
it should _not_ be)."

We may here for the time being disregard the fundamentally unsound
position of the right arm, for Mr. Horace Hutchinson has apparently
altered his mind since, as we find him in _Great Golfers_ photographed
at the top of his swing with the right elbow in an entirely different
position. We see there clearly that he had come to realise the
importance of keeping his elbow well down and as much as possible in
the plane of force indicated by the swing and the shaft of the golf
club. These photographs are very interesting. Mr. Horace Hutchinson
says that the golf club "should be held well home in the [left] palm,
and it is not to stir from this position throughout the swing," yet at
the top of Mr. Horace Hutchinson's swing illustrated on page 296 of
_Great Golfers_ we see clearly that at the top of his swing the club
is barely held in the fingers of the left hand--as a matter of fact
the forefinger of the left hand is raised and the club is merely
resting in the three other fingers, which appear to be curved on to
the club and hardly exerting any pressure whatever.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

It is abundantly clear from this photograph that Mr. Hutchinson, who
is the most pronounced adherent to the fetich of the left, is driving
his ball with a grip which is, to all intents and purposes, a
right-handed stroke. This photograph was taken in action and at the
rate of about one twelve-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second, so that
there cannot be much doubt as to the fact that Mr. Horace Hutchinson
is merely another exemplification of the fact that the golfers who
write for the public tell them one thing, while they themselves
practise another.

Before concluding this chapter on the power of the left, I may mention
that Mr. H. H. Hilton in Mr. John L. Low's book _Concerning Golf_,
subscribes to the idea of attempting to regulate the force of the
grips taken by the hands. He says on page 78 of that book:

When the main object of a shot is to obtain length, hold
tight with the left hand. The left hand will then do most of
the work in taking up the club. The right hand comes in on
the down swing to add force to the shot, and all parts of the
player's anatomy cohering together, the impetus will carry
his shoulders round, and unless he arbitrarily checks the
motion, he will finish his shot with his arms and club thrown
forcibly away from him; in short, he will have followed
through.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

It will be seen that this fine player distinctly advises a stronger
grip with the left than with the right hand when one's object is
distance. In the drive the object, of course, generally is distance,
and we are distinctly advised by Mr. Hilton to play our stroke in a
manner which Harry Vardon has clearly laid down as almost certain to
lead to irretrievable disaster, for starting with a firm grip with our
left, which we are to put practically in command of the club on the
upward swing, we are then to bring the right into play "on the down
swing to add force to the shot."


It will be clearly seen here that Mr. Hilton is under the impression
that the left is performing the more important portion of the work,
for he speaks of the right hand as coming in to add force to the shot,
whereas, in fact, the main portion of the force is provided by the
right, and if there is any question of either hand and arm _adding_
force to the shot, that will be done by the left hand and arm, and not
by the right.

[Dark Saint Alaick]

I do not think it is necessary for me to go any further in order to
show how deeply rooted and how widespread is this delusion about the
power of the left. It is another one of those pernicious fallacies
which absolutely strike at the root of the game of the great body of
golfers, and it is impossible for one to take too much trouble in
discrediting it to such an extent that it will soon be recognised as
not being practical golf.

I can hardly close this chapter better than by a quotation from a
letter received by me from the professional of an American club as far
afield as San Antonio, Texas. He writes:

It has taken me years of persistent effort to bury the many
prejudices against the proper use of the right arm, but they
must go, and I am glad to see you voiced sentiments strong
enough to make men stop and think over the situation. Let us
hope they will act.